The Newness of the New Year and Each Day Following

Happy New Year!!!


There is a newness about this time of year that starts me thinking about all the things I need to resolve to do. There is also the thoughts of all the things I resolved to do and didn't do last year. I'm sure all of you have at least had the thoughts of those resolutions and making them. Maybe a few of you have been brave enough to actually write them down and determined to carry them out. 

In years past I have failed miserably at keeping resolutions. Maybe that's because my life didn't depend on the resolution I was making. Maybe I wasn't serious enough about what I was proposing to do. Maybe I was just wanting to feel like I was a part of the resolution crowd and not left out. Whatever the reason was, it didn't work. We would sing songs and entertain friends till the wee hours of the morning knowing that we had a brand new year to look forward to in the morning. We would sing Auld Lang Syne and talk about what we are going to do different next year.


So what does that New Years song "Auld Land Syne" have to do with the new year anyway? Well according to Wikipedia, "The song begins by posing the question whether it is right that old times be forgotten, and is generally interpreted as a call to remember long-standing friendships." So looking forward may mean having to give up looking back to the past so fondly and wishing I were there instead of here, where I am now. Does that make sense? I think it does actually. But there is also the side of remembering the past and finding those that are meant to be in the present and future. God may just want you to look at some of those old friendships and see if there is something there that is worth redeeming.

I also think I have found the secret to keeping all those new years resolutions. Think about this and see if it might help you also. Here is why I think it will help both you and me.

1. Gods New mercies are new every morning.

Lam 3:22-23 It is by Jehovah's kindnesses that we are not destroyed, because His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

Because of this I can start fresh new every morning and not have to worry about the fact that I failed yesterday or not. I get a new opportunity to start over each day. Kinda like a new years day every morning. A redemption from the mess-ups I have fallen into or out of. This brings freedom of knowing that if I might blow it today I can repent and start over without believing I am a failure and unsavable. I can know that in the working out of that resolution, I can continue to work towards the high calling of God and continue on with the mercy of God and renewed strength to pursevere through any other failures or setbacks.

2. I have New life in Christ.

2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have disappeared, and-look!-all things have become new!

Because of the great love of God towards us and through the redemptive power of Gods Son Jesus, I have the opportunity to enter in and dwell in the life of Christ. And that is a life I can live moment by moment. I can live in the now and not the far future or in guilt over the past. I can choose each morning to follow God and live in his love and life each moment of the day.

3. New opportunities every day to do those things that I resolve to do

1Pe 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he has given us a new birth to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

Just because I may have failed yesterday or last year in keeping the resolutions I had made, I don't have to keep seeing my self as a failure. I am victorious over the sin and death of the past through the redeeming power of life and love in Christ. God has made me new again and again as I work out my salvation in him. I have an everlasting hope in the power of God, not my power or will to do something, but in him and his promise of an eternity in everlasting life. I have been given a new birth and a new opportunity to live the life of Christ.

4. New start for my wife and I

1Co 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.

Here is where the rubber meets the road for many things in our lives. This is where the true test of love and faith shows what it is made of. Living out the life of God before people I may only see week to week or even more often allows me to live one way there and another before my wife and kids. Behind closed doors many different things can happen. But when I make a resolution to live out the life and love of God everyday with everyone I am in contact with, my wife should be getting the very best I have to offer out of that life. I see the guidelines for that in the true nature of God, who is love. His love is made up of the characteristics I see in this verse and truly shown in his nature living in me. I can resolve to end each day with forgiveness and mercy and love, not recording the wrongs or faults of what I judge to be in others; especially my wife. I can start each new morning in the newness of that life in God as well and find new opportunities to show God and my wife how much I love them.

5. New start for my Kids

Psa 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins from us.

How many times do I foster a relationship with my children that takes the appearance of a hard nosed ruler of the house who demands respect and obedience? How far does my love and the character of God stretch towards my kids. Do I see them as God sees them? Do I love them as God loves them? If not, I need to get a serious checkup and deal with my children as God deals with me. I need to see my children as future brothers and sisters of the Kingdom of God and treat them with respect. They need to learn how to respect themselves and others. That can only happen when I am leading the way and showing them how to do it. I can only show them how to live that moment to moment life of grace in God by knowing who God is and following him in the love given to me and passed onto them. He forgives and forget our sins as he says he does. Do we forgive and forget the sins of our children. Do we deal with them as he deals with us?

6. New start for my friends

Rev 21:5 And He sitting on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.

Then there is the opportunity each day to live before my friends, my brothers and sisters in the Lord as I accept Gods love and life. Do I start over with them? Do I give them the forgiveness and friendship that God gives me each day? If not, then I need to find that person and ask for forgiveness myself. I need to see that I have harbored something against my brother and be reconciled to them. I need to find the newness of the life of God in those relationships as well. I can"t be afraid to step up to them and say, "I blew it and I need your forgiveness." I need to find those friends who are past and present and make things right. My love for them needs to be available for them as well. All things can be made new.


So as you start this new year, don't make shallow and empty resolutions that you know you will not have a desire to keep past Valentines Day and find something redeemable to resolve to that has life and love in it. Remember that there is always a new day and a new opportunity in God. His life is available to us new and fresh each morning. Do something with it and keep starting over when you fail. Don't give up! Don't walk around in a could of guilt and feeling of failure. Remember what God has given up his life for. You and I are the object of his affection. Be affectionately filled with the love of God and live it out each and every day.